France-Albert Rene

France-Albert Rene (16 November 1935-27 February 2019) was President of Seychelles from 5 June 1977 to 14 July 2004, succeeding James Mancham and preceding James Michel. The founder of the People's Party of Seychelles, he had the reputation of a "benevolent dictator", turning his country into the most developed country in Africa.

Biography
France-Albert Rene was born in Victoria, Seychelles in 1935, and he was educated in London, where he became a Labour Party activist and a moderate socialist. In 1964, he founded the People's Party of Seychelles, and he served as Prime Minister from 1976 to 1977, when his supporters launched a coup d'etat and named Rene as the new President. From 1979 to 1993, his party was the sole legal party in the country, and he continued to remain in power even after a US and French-backed coup attempt in 1981 and the implementation of multi-party democracy in 1993. In 2004, he decided to step down as President, and he died in 2019.